Starting Game - PLEASE HELP

Hi, I just signed up for my trial period and cannot get my game to play. I get the following message when I try to sign on:

1st window: UNABLE TO RUN FULL SCREEN AT 1024 x 768, RUNNING IN WINDOWS

then I click ok and it says...

2nd window: REQUIRES TRUE COLOR 32 BIT AND PROCEDES TO TELL ME HOW TO CHANGE.

I do not have an option of 32 bit. Only 16 and 24 in my control panel.

Can someone help me figure out what is going on. I am really excited about playing this game.

Thanks in advance for all who provide me w/ some help.

Also, game won't start at all. Didn't mention that before.

Your video card may not meet the minimum requirements to play SL. What video card do you have?

Yes, that's my guess, too. What video card do you have?

If the screen res gets dropped 32bit might be available.

Pirate

I tried to change the resolution already. I am not at home, so don't know what video card I have (I am so not techno - just love games - LOL)

Is there any possibility of playing SL in something other then 32 bit?

Thanks for all your help, guys.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

P.S. I also play The Sims Online with no trouble, but it is not 3D.

It sounds like you are trying to play on a laptop. At least, your problems are similar to what I see when I try (unsuccessfully) to run SL on my laptop. If so, it is highly unlikely that you will be able to upgrade the video. If not, SL has some pretty high video card requirements - check out the System Requirements on http://secondlife.com/download/. Good luck.

First you need to find out what hardware you have, then if it is supported you probably need to upgrade your drivers.
I can look for the exact links to the files you need when you tell me what kind of hardware you got

I called hubby at home and he says that he doesn't think we have a video card after all. Our pc says 3D graphics intell direct AGP. I don't know what that means, but sure you guys will, lol. I swear I am not stupid, just not real familiar w/ computers.

I sincerely appreciate all your help.

Also, if I do not have required information, do I have to buy a video card or is there something I can download to help.

I can run real player on my pc and I think I mentioned that I play The Sims Online. I have played a lot of pc games that have video. Not sure if you are familiar, but I recently played Sanitarium (fun game) and it had a lot of videos. They came through very clear.

I am itching to get into SL!!! Hope I can soon.

Will look forward to next posts, guys, thanks again!!

Okay, I used to play SL with an Intel graphics card on a notebook PC.

SL and Intel aren't designed to work together, so if you somehow manage to get SL to run, it will crash occasionally. If you still want to try, do this...

1. R-click on your desktop, choose Properties, then go to the Settings tab and reduce your display to 800x600. Click apply.

2. In the same tab, increase your Colors to True Color (32-bit) if that option is there and click Apply. You might have to reboot. If it isn't, then you can't play, sorry.

3. Try SL again.

If you can't get it to work, think about picking up a new computer with an nVidia graphics card.

Sorry I dont think you can play SL on that box.
You seem to have an "onboard" chip instead of a fully fledged graphics card. The fact that you can play TSO and sanitarium is no surprise to me given that sanitarium was released FIVE years ago, and TSO still uses the same engine as The Sims, which isnt even 3D and was already way low-tech when it was released.
I dont think you can even GET a new graphics card for that computer since most computers that come with an "onboard" chip, meaning, a graphics chip soldered to the main board instead of coming on a separate card, dont have the AGP slot where graphics cards need to go.
I hope I havent confused you with all the jargon but basically you need the latest and greatest computer hardware in order to play the latest and greatest games

Thanks Cubey. I have already tried the 800X600 and I do not have an option to do 32bit. That is the error message I am getting (
That is why I am so confused. Maybe it is because it is Intell. I just don't know why I am not getting the 32bit option, Hmmmmmmmm

Oh well, Ebay has some pretty cheap used Nvidia Geforce 2's. Maybe I will have to get one at a later time.. That is a bummer!!!

Eggy (sobb, sobb)

I think you are right. However, I found many sellers of the Nvidia Geforce 2 video cards for sale on Ebay. I just don't know if I can get one right now.

Best buy has this sweet computer on sale, but I have no money for that right now, waaaahhhhh.

Thanks for your help guys. I will now go and sulk!!!

Sorry that it didn;t work out for you Kira. If you do decide to buy a graphics card, go with something newer than a geforce 2 or you won't be much happier than you are now. Get a geforce 3 or later.

To find out if you computer came with an open AGP port in addition to the intel graphics chip on the motherboard you can call tech support for your computer and ask, or you should be able to find documentation for your computer at their website. I've had several computers that came with onboard graphics that I replaced with an AGP card. If you do have an AGP slot and install a new graphics card, you'll need to go into the bios utility for your computer and disable the graphics chip, or possibly change a jumper setting on the motherboard. Again tech support for your computer should be able to talk you through it. Good luck!

Chip, what a sweetheart! I am going to show your posting to my hubby and see if he can take it from there. He is much more computer savvy that I. He will take great pleasure in seeing I said that, hehehe.

Can't wait to finally play w/ you guys someday, lol. The game looks really fresh and interesting. Hope it is worth it in the end!!

Take Care!!!!!

What do you mean Intel don't work with SL? I am using an Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics with up to 64mb of shared memory.

When I first started I had a problem with INSTALLING the game. What happened was that the log in screen would stay up and HIDE the installer. The screen would freeze on the log in screen even tho I had not installed the game yet. I used the ol' standby ctrl-alt-del and the program manager was hiding the installer. YOU know how small that installer is!!

Finally one day as I was attempting it again and going thru the whole cycle of ctrl-alt-del cuz the screen had *froze* I saw the installer peeking out of a corner of the program manager. Ohhhhhhhh Myyyyyyyyy Gawwwwwwwdddddd....I quickly installed the game and have been here ever since. Now....I tell that story because ALL the advice I received throughtout this process was that I needed a new graphics card......NOT!!!!!!!!

Look beyond the card....it might be because she is using an old machine. In that case...a card will not do but a whole system upgrade. Ask her what her operating system is first of all. Does anybody know what it is?

All good points SuluMor. In this case, not having 32bit appear as an option even at 800x600 pretty well points at the video card or driver, but she'll want to make sure the rest of the computer meets the minimum suggested specs before investing in a new graphics card. Hopefully she still has tech support for the computer and can tell them what she wants to do and be told what she needs to do.

To find out if your computer can take an AGP card just pop it open. It wont bite. Actually I've kept my box open for over a year now... But please shut down your PC and disconnect the power cables just to be on the safe side.
See this image of a motherboard:
http://www.computer-store.rutgers.edu/images/motherboard.jpg
The lonely slot above the ISA(black) and PCI(white) ones is the AGP slot. If you have one, you can put a modern graphics card in it. If money is such a concern to you, buy a used geForce 4 Ti 4200 - less than $100. Do not buy a geForce 2 or a geForce 4 MX - they are cheap and crappy, and graphics will look lousy on them.

Aww poor dear.

Yeah if you have an AGP slot you can get a modern 3D card. I suggest at least a GeForce 4 with 64 megs of ram. I have one of those and I can play SL at max options with only a little slowness.


My PC came with an onboard 32mb Savage 4 card.

I only wish there was something I could use it for now that I'm using my GeForce4 card, since I can't take the Savage out of the machine.

You might be able to use it to run a second monitor Relee. A lot of people do dual monitor setups with two cards instead of a dual head card. Microsoft has a list somewhere of the cards you can use to run a second monitor. I can't remember what I had on my motherboard but it wasn't supported. Yours might be though